Sam Worthington to Star in Director Alex Proyas' Dracula Year Zero?

01.26.10 by BJSprecher

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Vampires, vampires, vampires. It seems that Hollywood just can't get enough of these creatures of the night. The latest movie in development to feature the blood-sucking undead, Dracula Year Zero, aims to travel back to the inspiration of the modern vampire myths by telling the story of Vlad "The Impaler" Tepes, the real-life Romanian Prince of Wallachia whose title "Dracula" ("Son of the Dragon") was made famous by author Bram Stoker's 1897 novel of the same name.

Director Alex Proyas (I, Robot, Dark City), has been linked to the project for some time, but he recently told TechLand that "you never really know until you start shooting." Proyas said that he was initially "so not into" the project, but that the script intrigued him.

It's all about how Vlad of Transylvania became this creature; the choices that he made to make him into this tragic character. It's so intriguing to me, to approach this as a character study on a huge, epic canvas. The script is from these two young guys who have never really done a script before, but they basically did their thing and have reinvented the whole context of this most familiar personality.

Even though Proyas said that the movie is "still in the budgeting and scheduling" phase, the popular movie site LatinoReview is claiming that "a trusted source" has pegged Hollywood's current it-boy as the movie's headliner.

Check it though, you know who is supposed to play Dracula? Sam Worthington! That's right, the newly minted 'movie star' who everybody paid to see in Avatar.

It's not surprising that Worthington's name is mentioned in connection with this movie: His name has been tossed around for everything from the
Mad Max and
Flash Gordon
remakes to Marvel Studios' The First Avenger: Captain America. It's probably best to take a "wait and see" approach to this bit of news.